Dallas Mavericks Blog

These aren’t your daddy’s Spurs

All you have to do to realize this is a different San Antonio team that will be coming to AAC on Thursday night is look at the box score from Tuesday’s win against the Lakers.

In that game, Tim Duncan was 1-of-7 from the field, had just two points and four rebounds and played almost 30 minutes.

And the Spurs won, going away.

This is not Duncan’s team anymore. Oh, the Spurs can still lean on him offensively from time to time. But this club is built around Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker and Richard Jefferson, who has found a stride after struggling in his first season with the Spurs.

In addition, DeJuan Blair picked up 17 points and 15 rebounds in the 97-82 win over Kobe Bryant’s team.

You have to give credit to Gregg Popovich for the way the Spurs have reinvented themselves. History says they are a defense-first team. And judging from the Lakers’ output on Tuesday, that can still be the case. But the Spurs also average nearly 106 points per game, putting them in the top five in the league. Popovich is usually ahead of the curve when it comes to setting trends and not following them. His switch to a higher gear offensively is commendable.